Increase Upper Age Limit of SC/ST Candidates to 40 Years: KHNAM

The Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement (KHNAM) on Thursday asked the Meghalaya government to increase the upper age limits of SC/ST candidates appearing for competitive civil service examination to 40 years in line with other states in the North East.

In a memorandum to chief secretary Y Tsering on Thursday, the KHNAM, which is one of the regional political parties in the state, has also demanded the immediate re-advertising for the posts of Meghalaya Civil Service (MCS) officers in the state. This came after the Meghalaya Public Service Commission (MPSC) had published an advertisement for the recruitment to the Meghalaya Civil Service on July 24.

The qualifying age was fixed to be above 21 years and below 27 years with upper age limits of five years for SC/ST. “We strongly demands that the advertisement notified by the MPSC be re-advertised or amended by increasing the qualifying age to 40 years for scheduled caste/scheduled tribe candidates,” party’s vice president Thomas Passah said in the memorandum.

According to him, by increasing the upper age relaxation for the SC/ST candidates to 40 years as being followed in other NE states, the potential youth can be absorbed for employment. Stating that the provision of the Meghalaya Civil Service Rules, 1975 do permits to take such step, he said that Section 9 Para (ii) clearly stated: “provided that the upper age limit may be relaxed in respect of candidates belonging to special categories in accordance with any general or special order issued by the government from time to time.”

In order to ensure that indigenous educated youth are given opportunities to be employed into various civil services in the state, the party further recommended the state government to amend the Meghalaya Civil Service Rules to ensure first priority be given to indigenous schedule tribe. “The MCS Rules, 1975 should clearly indicate that candidate should have compulsory working knowledge of local language,” he added.